National Pension Service Buys 236,012 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,256,047 shares of the natural resource company's stock after buying an additional 236,012 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.23% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $123,990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $139,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,255,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the topic of several research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.3 %

FCX stock traded down $0.51 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $36.92. 14,776,973 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,538,130. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $38.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.59. The stock has a market cap of $53.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.89 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.